


And I Would've Gone Blind Just To See This Sun

by stoneNautilus



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Agent 3 and Agent 8 have PTSD, Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Everyone gets development!, Expanding on prexisting lore, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Hiatus, Mega spoilers for the Octo Expansion, Minor Marina/Pearl (Splatoon), Mostly Canon Complient, Octo Expansion DLC, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Octo Expansion DLC, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:00:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26300821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stoneNautilus/pseuds/stoneNautilus
Summary: After the whole saving Inkopolis fiasco, Agent 8 has managed to build herself a shiny new life. Things should've been all good from here, but everywhere she turns, Agent 8 is reminded of everyone she left behind on the Deepsea Metro. They deserve to see the Surface too.Agent 8's gonna make sure they see it.ON AN INDEFINITE HIATUS: EXPLANATION IN CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY
Relationships: Agent 3/Agent 8 (Splatoon)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 28





	1. After the Fact

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fic, and tbh I was NOT expecting it to be Splatoon of all things, but whatever. I don't control the hyperfixation. I'm real excited tho! Any feedback is appreciated.  
> This fic is going to have a lot of lore expansion in it based entirely on what I want. The Splatoon universe is rad.  
> Btw this here first chapter is gonna be kinda short, but I've got big plans from here I promise. ;)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This fic is currently on an indefinite hiatus due to a lack of planning on my part. I went into this fic excited to just dip my toes into fanfiction, and while I had a bunch of ideas, none of them were organized. I had no outline, and I had no real plan aside from a few key scenes, so I quickly found myself floundering with no idea what the plan was.
> 
> I'm hoping to someday come back to this fic once I've written a proper outline, but until then, this fic is on an official hiatus.

When Agent 8 saw the Surface for the first time, she would have described it with words like gorgeous, splendid, wonderful. The Surface had represented hope, safety, and a new life back in the Deepsea Metro. When she was put up against tests that nearly broke her, Agent 8 remembered the Surface in store. The Promised Land. While she waited for the train to take her to the next testing station, she would listen to the Cap’n’s tales and descriptions of the Surface in awe and would imagine her own life once she got up there. When she finally climbed out of the Deepsea Metro for the first time and felt the sun on her face and her tentacles fluttering in the wind, she simply had to take it all in. When Inkopolis had been saved and she was flown away in the heli with her new friends, the sky’s colors blended together and created the most beautiful picture she could remember to this day. When she got there, the Surface was everything she dreamed of and more.

Today, sitting on a bench and replacing her Octobrush’s paint tube for the 13th time today after endless games of Turf War and Tower Control, after gathering just enough cash to get those new shoes, after working enough shifts with Grizzco to hold up the entire company, Agent 8 was still just as enamored with the surface as the day she got there. It was still beautiful. The breeze still gave her just enough energy to walk from her little apartment to Inkopolis Square in the mornings. Every night the sunset was something to be celebrated, because it was another day she’d spent up here. Another day she had made it. Another day where Inkopolis hadn’t been destroyed and nobody was the wiser about it.

And that was the problem with it all.

The human statue that had almost destroyed everything still sat in the middle of the ocean, and below it was so much that was simply left behind. Every now and then Agent 8 couldn’t help but remember the denizens of the deep and how they were apparently not allowed to see the surface. When she stared too hard at the labels on her gear she only saw mem cakes and was reminded of Mr. Padre, still left down there. All those Octarians, or the shells of them at least, left rotting in the testing chambers.

Inklings were swell, and so were all of the Octolings who had found their way to the Surface, but they didn’t know, and they couldn’t. The Cap’n said that it was better if the masses were left to their own devices. Three claimed that talking about the Deepsea Metro would cause young, impressionable Inklings to do dangerous things to find it. Even Pearl and Marina agreed that the place was better left behind. That the people were left to be forgotten.

It had been months since that decision, and since then everyone had kept their mouths shut about the Metro. The only time the Deepsea Metro got mentioned again was back when the Cap’n’s granddaughters and Agent 4 were told the story. There were some questions of course, but they all happily decided to stop talking about it after they heard enough.

They were content with letting the memory of everyone else on that god-forsaken Metro fade into obscurity.

And Agent 8 thought about that every day. Every sunset was punctuated with the hollow realization that so many were missing out on it. The food she got to try every day reminded her of just how lucky she was to not be eating the nutrition bars that were passed out to those stuck forever on the Metro. When she felt she needed guidance she would fall back on the wise words she'd gotten from Mr. Padre. Sometimes the Octoling on the opposing team who she'd just splatted had a face that was far too similar to that of a sanitized one from the depths.

As Agent 8 finally closed the hatch on her Octobrush and threw it over her shoulder, she made a decision. She knew it was quite a small one, but it could lead to something later, and for now a small decision was better than nothing.

**_Everyone meet me in Octo Valley. Tomorrow, 5pm. Important discussions to be had._ **

And now the whole of the New Squidbeak Splatoon would be there.

She’d see them tomorrow and she’d talk to them, perhaps she'd change their decisions months after deciding to forget about the Metro.

But Agent 8 had already made her decision.


	2. Decisions

“We need to go back to the Deepsea Metro.”

Everyone had just sat down at the table beside the Cap’n’s shack and Agent 8 was already off to a great start for her super convincing and not at all insane case. 

The whole of the New Squidbeak Splatoon sat in silence.

Well, until Callie broke the silence.

“Wait, what?”

“We left so many people down there. I was the 10,008th test subject, and I met at least one who had failed. How many other test subjects are still out there?”

“Eight, all of you fought tooth and fin to get out of there and you want to go _back_?” Marie chimed in. “You said you met one other former test subject. There’s no guarantee that there’s any more than that. Is it really worth all the resources it’ll take to get back there if there’s only one person down there?”

Agent 8 crossed her arms and stared Marie down.

“Yes.”

Callie and Marie were both exchanging incredulous glances between themselves, but everyone else had their eyes right on Agent 8. She couldn’t ignore the way her heartbeat hastened and her finger ached for an ink gun when someone was watching her too close, much less multiple someones.

“I mean, not that there’s only one test subject down there. Well, no, there might only be one other test subject left. But there’s other people down there! There were people on the Metro from all over the lines, but they aren’t allowed to see the Surface, or, uh, they weren’t when I was there. Not according to C.Q. Cumber. They should be allowed on the Surface too.”

Knowing when something was watching was one of the main instincts that had kept Agent 8 alive back in the testing chambers, but here, all it was doing was making her shaky and clammy. Her words kept getting caught in her throat every time she caught someone’s eye.

“You’ve got a point, actually,” Four said. She stood up and finally the eyes were off of Agent 8 and on someone else. Four had a confident posture, and her freckled face was far more expressive than the Octoling’s. Four was one of the most animated and charming Inklings here, making her a perfect ally here. Agent 8 could actually breathe in relief, because if there was anyone who could convince the rest of the New Squidbeak Splatoon that this plan had any merit, it would be Four.

“It’s pretty sucky to get Eight and the Cap’n out of what sounds like the worst form of public transportation to date, only to leave at _least_ a few dozen others behind, but by the sounds of it there’s a lot more than that still down there.” Four’s face split into an easygoing grin. “We probably only need a few of us to actually go down anyways, since y’all killed the evil telephone in charge. It wouldn't be much work for anyone who doesn't want in. Anyone who wants could stay here, and we’d just need one person with a walkie-talkie so we could call in if we need something.”

"What if something goes horribly wrong?" Callie asked.

Four’s expression didn’t falter as she shrugged. “We’ll tell whoever’s on the line and get out of there? I don’t think it would come to that anyways. Didn’t Eight neutralize every major threat down there?”

“Not the sanitized Octarians.”

And now all eyes were on Three.

“You seem to forget just how dangerous sanitization is.” Three’s scar provided the perfect proof. The area had discolored her skin and scar tissue, and her eye hadn’t ever gone back to its normal color, but it instead stayed a pale blue-green with a too large iris. It hurt just to look at, which was probably why Three was keeping it mostly covered with a baseball cap.

“So we should leave everyone down there to potentially be sanitized as well?” Agent 8 questioned.

Three shook her head. “Absolutely not. I’m simply reminding Agent 4 that the things we encountered down there aren’t to be downplayed.”

Four grinned. “So you agree that we should go?”

Three shrugged, leaning back in her chair. “Depends on what the Cap’n says.”

All eyes on the Cap’n.

Agent 8 held her breath. All of the agents were at best on her side and at worst neutral, but the deciding vote really fell on the Cap’n. Despite his peculiarities, he was by no means a fool. If he decided that this mission was a bad idea, she would bet that he had good reasons behind it.

It didn’t mean that she would agree, though.

After the longest seconds of Agent 8’s life, Cap’n Cuttlefish rose from his seat.

“I don’t see why not,” he said, “it’ll be nice to see Iso Padre again, along with all of the other Metro passengers!”

Agent 8 sat up straight in her chair, fighting to control the smile that was about to take over her face. She’d need to gather her best gear and the old CQ-80 device on her dresser, maybe she could bring along her mem cakes for Mr. Padre, and-

“Wait a second there, Gramps. Last time you were stuck underground, Octavio got out of the snow globe and brainwashed Callie. Like, multiple times. It’s kind of the entire reason Agent 4 was recruited. It’d probably be best if you stayed up here to keep an eye on things,” Marie said.

“You wouldn’t even miss out on anything! This should be a real simple mission. A few days at most to clear out a path, probably?” Four said, interrupting the Cap’n’s rebuttal before he could even begin.

“Agent 8. Didn't you tell us when we were on the heli that there were tons of sanitized Octarians on the way out of the Metro?” Three asked.

“Yes,” Agent 8 replied, “but I wasn’t armed properly for a decent chunk of my escape. It was also just me fighting down there. With you and Four, clearing the way should be easy, that is, if the sanitized Octarians are even there anymore.”

Three tilted her head at Agent 8, “Why wouldn’t they still be there?”

“They were being controlled by the Telephone, weren’t they? He’s gone now, so maybe they’re gone too, or at least out of commission. They could also be more like passive zombies if they’re still up and running. The odds are in our favor,” Agent 8 told her.

Three shoved herself into a proper sitting position, resting an elbow on the table as she locked onto Agent 8.

“And if they aren’t?”

Agent 8 smiled.

“We made it out last time, didn’t we?”

* * *

Three hours and a few phone calls later, they had a plan.

Agents 3, 4, and 8 would leave on a heli provided by Pearl and Marina in three days. They’d gather all of their best gear and weapons in the meantime to bring with them just in case, and someone would stay on the line with the CQ-80 at all times. Once the gang had found a working pathway, they’d get a pickup from the heli once again and from there they would establish a way to regularly get people from the statue back to Inkopolis from there.

Agent 8 said her farewells to the Squid Sisters and the Cap’n as she made her way from the shack to the kettle that would return her to Inkopolis Square. It was funny, she still didn’t remember the kettles, even though they were apparently a big thing for Octarians.

“Hey, Eight.”

Agent 8 looked up just in time to avoid running into Three, who had moved in front of the kettle.

“You live anywhere east of Inkopolis Square? Four and I both have to head that way to get home,” Three continued, motioning to Four, who was busy poking an extremely agitated DJ Octavio’s snow globe prison. Agent 8 still couldn’t remember much of DJ Octavio either, but she knew he’d done more than enough to deserve the treatment he was getting.

“I do, actually. It’s about a fifteen minute walk from Inkopolis Square,” Agent 8 replied.

Three nodded and stepped over the grate, adjusting her cap to cover her face better.

“Perfect. I’ll meet you and Four in a few and we can plan on the way home,” Three said, going into her squid form and disappearing into the kettle.

Four ran over next, saluting Agent 8 before she too disappeared into the kettle.

Agent 8 followed suit after Four and Three. She had no idea how the kettles worked, one moment you were falling through the grates, and the next you were being ejected back out in a different place. The memory as to how this Octarian technology had probably been wiped completely from Agent 8’s memory. Perhaps the memory never existed in the first place.

Just as Octo Valley left Agent 8’s view, a nearly empty Inkopolis Square replaced it.

“Well, let’s get moving,” Four said, clasping her hands together as she led the walk back home.

The painfully quiet walk.

At least five minutes had passed before Four finally shattered the silence.

“So, Eight. Does everyone _actually_ call you that, or is it just part of the Agent Number Syndrome we all have?”

“What do you mean?”

Four shrugged, turning around and walking backwards so she could face the other two. “Did you ever choose a name that isn’t a number, or have you just been enduring the weird looks?”

“Oh, yeah,” the Octoling muttered, “I’ve been calling myself Izzy since I got here.”

Four began beaming, somehow throwing a hop into her backwards walking and not tripping. “Aww, that’s adorable! Where’d you get the idea for it?”

Izzy laughed and shook her head. “There wasn't much thought behind it, if I'm being honest. We were wrapping up after a game of Turf War, and I’d been splatted right before the end of the game because someone kept throwing fizzy bombs at me. One of the members of the opposing team apparently wanted to meet me and asked, ‘You are?’ and I heard, ‘Your arm?’, which got a little bruised. I just told him, ‘Fizzies’ and I guess his hearing was as good as mine, so now I’m Izzy.”

“That’s a pretty name good origin story, actually! I just started calling myself Dot because of the freckles,” Dot said, pointing to her cheeks for emphasis.

Izzy paused to think for just a moment. “Wait, you picked yours out too?”

“Yup!”

“What about the name your parents gave you?”

Dot turned back around with an exaggerated shrug. “Didn’t fit anymore, so I changed it.”

As Izzy narrowly avoided tripping over someone’s discarded charger scope she nodded and turned to Three. “What about you? What’s your non-number name?”

Three looked up from the sidewalk for the first time since they’d begun walking. “Kai, but it’s Three when I’m on duty.”

“Oh. Well, Kai’s a nice name,” “Izzy said, “it suits you.”

And for just a moment, Izzy caught the tiniest hint of a smile on Kai’s face.

“You know,” Dot interjected, “it’s nice to actually know y’all as something that isn’t a number. It feels more personal, yaknow? Like we’re friends now, instead of just coworkers.”

Izzy tilted her head. “We’re friends?”

“Well, I’d hope so! If not, we will be by the end of this mission. I’ll make sure of it,” Dot grinned.

Izzy felt a smile spread across her face. She hadn’t gotten to know anyone here on the Surface well yet, despite the months she’d been here. It would be nice to have someone to talk to.

Suddenly Dot stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, clapping her hands together. “Well, here’s my stop! You two get home safe. I’ll see y’all in a few days!” she called out, waving before walking across the street to an apartment building.

Once Dot had gone inside, Kai began marching forward, taking the lead now.

“So, Eig- Izzy,” She started

“Yeah?”

“This mission. You’re really confident that everything will go well?”

In reality, most of the things that could make this mission easier fell on chance. Sure, it was very likely that things on the Deepsea Metro were in disarray after the loss of what was presumably the CEO of the Kamabo Corporation, but there was always the off chance that nothing had disbanded. That they were stronger than before. That the Deepsea Metro had captured other test subjects.

But even if that were the case, wasn’t it better to stop them now?

“We killed the Telephone and destroyed the weapon inside the human-man statue. I managed to complete all of the tests alone, and you managed to get a hold of an employee model CQ-80 on your own. This time we’re able to work together, plus we’ve got Four- er, Dot, helping us. Double plus, we’ll have someone on the line if we need help and they know where to find us. If anything goes wrong, I think we can make it out,” Izzy explained. She’d leave those unlikely worries out of it for now. The mission needed to start soon. The denizens of the deep were still in that Metro after all these months.

Kai sighed and put her hands in her pants pockets. “I’m not worried about our own abilities. It’s a matter of what they might have prepared for. While you did make it through all of the tests down there, it’s likely you were being watched. What’s the point of conducting a test if there’s nobody to closely monitor the results? They could know everything about your fighting style, and there's no doubt that they would've looked for every single one of your weaknesses."

“The Telephone died when Pearl destroyed the cannon, and I’m pretty sure he was the only one with any reason to keep close track of me,” Izzy stated, choosing to omit the ever watchful eye of C.Q. Cumber. 

He was just an employee of the Kamabo Corporation. He was just doing his job.

“Besides,” Izzy continued, “on the off chance that there _is_ a threat down there, it wouldn’t know anything about you or Dot, and we’ll probably get the denizens of the deep on our side, and it all still hinges on there being an actual threat.”

Izzy turned to Kai and put on the reassuring smile she’d been perfecting in her time on the Surface. “I’m confident in the situation and in us. Everyone on that Metro deserves to see the sun for once in their lives, and no one else is gonna make that happen for them.”

Kai looked back to the pavement, her cap obscuring her eyes from view. “You really have this all thought out, don’t you.”

Izzy instinctively turned forward, watching the buildings they passed in her periphery. “I’ve been thinking about them since a week after I settled in here,” she admitted in a low voice. “If there really is a threat down there, I’d feel so much worse leaving everyone down there to deal with it when I had all the resources to help them.”

“I respect that,” Kai said, finally looking up and staring Izzy in the eyes. Her expression was blank and her flat words bit like the cold. “Just remember that you’re more useful to the denizens of the deep alive, even if that means it takes longer to give them a way out.”

The blood left Izzy’s face and her fingers went cold and numb. Kai’s point was sharp enough to stab her in the gut, but that didn’t mean Izzy had thought much of it until now. There weren’t going to be any huge threats, it was going to be a simple mission. The denizens of the deep would have a way out of the Metro in a matter of days.

But the spear that was Kai’s words had just popped Izzy’s little bubble of certainty. Nothing was guaranteed.

But Izzy left them to rot for months. She couldn't leave them to wait longer.

“Here’s my building.”

Izzy pointed at the apartment complex beside them and stopped. Kai glanced over her shoulder to Izzy and turned around.

“I’ll see you in a few days, then?” Kai asked.

“Yeah. I’ll see you then.”

Just as Izzy turned to her complex, there was a firm hand on her shoulder.

**Too close to the lower back any second before the pack exploded and the test restarted-**

“Hey. Don’t overthink what I said. Just don’t get myopic about the way the mission will go. Accept that things may need to change for everyone’s safety, and that's okay,” Kai said, patting Izzy’s shoulder.

**Still too close way too close**

Kai finally retracted her hand. “Get some rest,” Kai muttered before taking her leave.

Izzy was left standing frozen in front of her building. It took at least five solid minutes of breathing exercises before her she could feel her fingers again and the phantom pain in her lower back dulled.

Everyone deserves to see the Surface. To see the sun. To feel the breeze on your face. To get away from the testing chambers.

* * *

Several more minutes later, and Izzy had finally found herself inside her own apartment.

She didn’t remember walking through the lobby, or getting on the elevator, or unlocking her front door. She was only barely aware of the time she’d spent standing outside, focusing on each shaky breath until she could manage her own lungs.

But she was back home, and the small one bedroom apartment she called home meant safety. This was the apartment she picked out when she first got to the Surface, the one that Pearl and Marina offered to pay for as long as Izzy would need. It was the same apartment that Izzy could now pay for on her own with the money she made from playing in competitive Turf War tournaments.

Izzy threw her shoes off and headed for her bedroom. One more thing to do before she could go to bed.

When entering her room, Izzy was met with the faces of far too many plushies for one bed and a shelf full of unorganized mem cakes. Beside her bed was a dresser with a pile of socks Izzy had yet to organize.

She’d do it tomorrow.

Hunching over, Izzy opened her bottom dresser drawer and began digging around. She found more socks, some bandanas, and a can of beans before she finally pulled out her old CQ-80. She flopped on her bed as she tried the power on button. It would probably need to be charged or have the batteries replaced before she left.

But the holograph appeared in front of her just as it had back in the Metro. The chatlogs, the picture section, and the user settings were all the same as last time she’d touched the thing.

The only thing that was different was the new line.

An entire, brand new line.

Line K.

Colored a cool toned red and connected to the far west end of line G and the northwestern end of line H, was line K in all its glory. The only unlocked stations on the line were the stations right next to ones Izzy had completed back in her time on the Metro.

Izzy slapped the power off button on the CQ-80 and dropped it to the floor, scrambling away from it.

A new line could mean too many things. Perhaps the Deepsea Metro simply added more stops for the denizens of the deep, so they could get places. Maybe the line was in production long before Izzy had ever fallen down to the Metro, and it was opened sometime after she’d left, just like planned. For all she knew, the line could’ve been closed during her testing and so it was simply ignored until it was opened again!

But that didn’t explain why the unlocked testing stations had listed costs and weapons and objectives. If Kamabo Co. really had shut down, then there would be no need for those things, right?

_Right?_

But maybe Izzy wouldn’t need an explanation.

Maybe nobody else would even need to know.

Maybe if they worked fast enough, nobody would even know about line K until the denizens of the deep could see the Surface, and the Deepsea Metro was sealed away forever.

Maybe Izzy could forget the Deepsea Metro had ever existed in the first place.

Maybe this was the first step.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE WE GOOO


	3. Should be Safe

One would think that they wouldn’t forget just how noisy the heli was, but here was Izzy, somehow caught off guard that the heli was already so loud, and it wasn’t even all the way to the ground yet.

The agents had gone to one of the more remote helipads in Inkopolis for their pickup, further from the coast and from prying eyes. Pearl and Marina had expressed concerns about members of the paparazzi finding out where they were, and by extension, the mission, so everyone would just have to deal with the longer ride.

Not that Izzy should be complaining, considering that Pearl and Marina dropped everything to come all the way out here to take her back to the Metro, but as the heli descended and the wind picked up beneath it, the noise was growing louder and louder in Izzy's ears. And they were about to be stuck in the cabin of that thing for at least an hour.

What a fun start to the day.

“I still can’t believe that you both got to hang out with some of the biggest celebrities in Inkopolis right now while I was busy beating up Octavio for the fourth time in a row, and you guys just don’t bat an eye about it,” Dot said, “Like, ‘Aw yeah I’m just gonna call up my best buddies, Pearl and Marina from Off the Hook, and have them pause their lives for a little bit so I can ask to ride on their private heli,’ and they turned around and said, ‘Well if you need a ride, we’re not just gonna let you go alone! We’ll even bring snacks and movies,’ like it’s a sleepover or something. Geez.”

“Sounds like someone’s a bit jealous,” Kai stated flatly.

Dot sighed loudly and flung herself over her ink tank, which she had propped up on the ground. “Obviously!” she whined, raising her voice to be heard over the heli.

Izzy brought her hands to her ears as the heli finally landed, the gusts of wind blowing her tentacles straight into her eyes. Kai and Dot did the same, squinting as dust flew by.

The propellers had barely even begun slowing down before the door of the cabin was flung open and Pearl and Marina burst out of the heli. Within seconds they were closing the gap between themselves and the agents. Pearl, despite her short legs, managed to make it to the agents just before Marina. “Ayo, Eight! Long time no see!” she called out through a grin. Her voice was crystal clear over the slowing blades of the heli.

Before Izzy could respond to Pearl, she found herself only barely dodging Marina, who narrowly avoided eating dirt as she skidded to a stop.

“Eight! How have you been? Is your apartment treating you well? Have you found anything fresh near your building yet? If not, Pearl and I will have to take you to this sushi place that we found, it’s expensive but we’d pay, obviously. It’ll also have to be when you get back from this mission, but that's a given. Oh! When you get back, we should also take you on a shopping spree. You're still wearing those same heels as the day we picked you up! Oh, geez. I just realized, you saved Inkopolis in _heels_ without batting an eye...” Marina trailed off, only so she could take her first breath since she began chattering. “Anyways! We need to catch up!”

Again, before Izzy could even begin to formulate a reply to any of what Marina just threw at her, she was interrupted, this time by Pearl.

“Hey, who’s the new squid?” she asked, pointing straight at a stiff and oddly quiet Dot.

Kai spoke up as she gathered her belongings. “That’s Agent 4. She worked with Agent 2 while the rest of us were busy on our last adventure in Underwater Hell. She will be accompanying us on this mission.”

“Oh, fresh,” Pearl said, already switching her interest away from Dot and onto Kai. “Anyways, How’ve you been? Does your head still hurt like last time?”

Kai threw her backpack over her shoulder. “We’ll have time to talk on the heli. We should really be leaving soon,” she said, not sparing a glance to Pearl as she marched forward to the heli.

“She’s right, we really should be going,” Izzy said, collecting her octobrush and ink tank/backpack hybrid before making her way for the heli.

Dot finally snapped out of her stillness, starting to pick up her things. Just as Izzy was leaving earshot of the group, she heard Pearl and Marina offering some help to Dot.

By the time Izzy had walked to the cabin of the heli, Kai was already slumped against the wall and hunched over her hero shot, cleaning the already near spotless gun. Izzy dropped her belongings toward the back of the heli, where they wouldn’t end up getting thrown everywhere before sitting beside Kai, waiting for the others to join them.

“Marina and Pearl are your friends, Right?” Kai muttered with her eyes still on the hero shot.

“Yeah. They’ve been my closest friends since I got to the Surface,” Izzy told her.

Kai furrowed her brow and looked up from her weapon. “Ah. Do you prefer being called Eight then?” she asked.

Did she? 

Eight was the first name she remembered, given to her and uttered by the people who made it their mission to help her out of the Deepsea Metro. It was the name her first friends called her by. It was the name that she listened out for on the little radio while she and the Cap’n rode the Metro to the next test. It was the name that distracted her from the pain of cleaning the burning wounds from the last test. It was the name that was derived from her test applicant number. Her number on the list. The ever growing number of people who would die, thinking the Promised Land was just _one more test away_.

“Not really.”

Kai’s nose scrunched upward in what appeared to be distaste. “Then why do they keep calling you by it? Friends are supposed to respect things like that, you know,” she said, eyeing Pearl and Marina, who were just now heading toward the heli with Dot in tow.

Izzy spared a glance at her friends returning, lowering her voice so they couldn’t hear, “I haven’t actually gotten to talk to them since before I picked up Izzy. It’s not their fault.”

“Oh,” Kai muttered. “Wait, when exactly did you start going by Izzy?”

“A little over three months ago, when I started using it to apply to Turf War tournaments.”

Kai’s back shot away from the wall, leaning over herself to stare at Izzy in disbelief. “You’ve been on the Surface for five months, and you haven’t spoken to your closest friends in over three of them? Have you kept in touch with anyone since you got up here?”

Blood rushed to Izzy’s face, and just as she opened her mouth to try and explain herself, a miracle occurred. Marina strode into the heli with Pearl and Dot, who were all chuckling among themselves.

Dot threw her slosher into the back with Kai and Izzy’s things with a clang, which was followed by Pearl throwing Dot’s ink tank/backpack after it with an even louder clang. The two immediately turned to each other for a high five that involved way too much cackling.

“Kay ‘Rina, let’s get this party started!” Pearl exclaimed, her voice far too large for the small metal room that was the cabin of the heli. Izzy could already feel her ears ringing.

Marina chuckled, settling into the pilot’s seat. “As soon as you close the door I’ll start flying this thing.”

Pearl groaned, grabbing the door and sliding it closed. “But we’re gonna miss out that ocean air,” she whined, clicking the door shut.

“You can keep it open when we aren’t carrying everyone’s weapons and gear.” Marina rolled her eyes with a soft smile. “Anyways, let’s be off!” she said, starting the propeller and raising the heli off the ground before she began flying toward the ocean.

Toward the Metro.

* * *

Contrary to what Pearl said, there was no partying to be done in the heli. In fact, the ride was oddly quiet, the only noise coming from Kai still cleaning her hero shot, Dot’s occasional fawning over the ocean view from the window, and Pearl and Marina’s occasional quips between each other. Izzy was too busy focusing on her breathing to take much notice to any of it.

Tension hung thick in the air, unspoken words screamed loud and clear through everyone’s seemingly innocuous actions. Dot’s constant glances at the window, Pearl’s tapping foot every time a large rock drew near, Kai’s focus on her weapon, Marina’s occasional claim that she’d veered a couple degrees off course and that it would now take just a tiny bit longer to get to the statue.

“It seems we’re almost there,” Marina finally said, the statue finally growing close enough to make out the details.

Everyone in the cabin turned their heads to the window to see the statue, in all its glory. The moment she set eyes on the statue, every fiber of Izzy’s being wanted to recoil, crawl to the back of the heli, head straight back to Inkopolis _right now_.

She was actually going back. To the statue. To the Metro.

To give the denizens of the deep a chance at the Surface.

Izzy didn’t notice Kai throwing on her cape and Dot grabbing everything else in the back until her octobrush was set next to her by Dot. After shoving herself off the ground, Izzy collected the brush and walked to the back of the heli to strap on her ink tank/backpack.

“Hey, Eight,” Pearl whispered (or tried to, anyway) as she watched Izzy. “You mentioned when you called us that this mission of yours should be safe, right?”

The Metro was still running. The testing chambers were still active. So many sanitized octarians that got away during the escape.

There were no guarantees.

“It should be.”

“And you’ve got your CQ device thingy on you?”

Izzy patted one the outer pocket of the backpack containing her old CQ-80.

“Yeah.”

Pearl nodded, leaning against the wall of the cabin. “Good. Just remember, if things go south, ‘Rina and I can fly right back out here and come get you guys. I can get speedboats sent out here. Shit, we’ll send out one of those city touring boat bus things if it comes down to it. If anything seems fishy at all, don’t hesitate to contact us, yeah?”

_Line K_.

“Will do,” Izzy said, quirking one corner of her mouth upward. Ignoring the taste of salt and bile in the back of her throat.

“Okay everyone, I’m going to lower the heli until we’re in super jump range. Once you get down there safely, we’ll head back. It’s probably going to be about an hour and a half until we get back and in a place where we can tune into the CQ-80. You guys think you can stay safe until then?” Marina said as the statue drew ever closer.

Dot grinned and sat down on her slosher, intently watching the window. “We’ve got the rest of the New Squidbeak Splatoon on a radio too, so we’ll have them until you guys can tune into our little adventure, doncha worry.”

“All right then,” Marina said, turning around in her seat for the first time since she began piloting the heli. “Good luck, you guys.” She gave them all the most encouraging smile she could muster before she turned back to focus on her pilot duties. “Pearlie, could you open up the door now?”

“You got it,” Pearl said, unlocking the door and swinging it open. “Have fun freeing tons of people from the Nightmare Train!”

Kai was the first to super jump to the halfway sunken statue, with Dot right behind.

Izzy spared one glance at the nearly destroyed gun protruding from the statue’s mouth, the hollow eyes of the human-man, the cracked marble of it all.

And she followed.

* * *

Atop the remains of the statue, the agents waved as the heli turned around and began flying away. They watched until it became only a speck in the sky.

Only way to go now was down.

“So. Quick things before we go in,” Kai started, “Izzy, make sure your CQ-80 is easily accessible, same for Dot with the radio. I’ll have the employee model CQ-80 on me, and I intend to keep it that way unless there’s an emergency. I remember some routes to get down to the Metro that should be faster than the route Izzy would’ve taken on the way out, so I’ll lead the way. Dot, you stay on my left, Izzy on my right.”

Dot frowned as she searched for the power button on her radio. “Why’s it so important what side we’re on?” she asked, “Not that I’m salty that I don’t get to be the right hand woman here or whatever, but you make weirdly specific decisions.”

Kai pointed to her right eye. The one that always seemed to be slightly off focus. The one surrounded by that all too familiar blue-green scar tissue. “Izzy knows this place far better than you do. I’d rather she be on the side that I can’t see as well.”

Dot shrank into herself and focused on the radio. “Oh.”

Izzy checked for her CQ-80 once again, somehow feeling relief when she found it still in her backpack, just where it was minutes earlier. She grabbed a flashlight from her coat pocket and turned it on, stationing herself beside Kai. “Anything else?”

Dot raised a finger at Izzy to wait, tapping the radio as it turned on and listening to the static for a moment before speaking into it. “Heyo, it’s Dot. We’re at the statue. Someone let us know that you’re on the line before we head straight in.”

“Heyo, Agent 4!” replied the voice of Callie, “We can hear you, and we’ll be here if you guys need anything! Good luck!”

Dot nodded to herself and attached the radio to her belt loop with a carabiner, then gave the other agents a thumbs up. “Yeah, let’s head in.”

Kai took the lead, pulling the hatch open, creating an entrance to the underwater facility for the first time in months. The agents walked inside, each giving one last glance at the sun until they returned.

Whenever that would be.

Upon entering the statue and climbing down the long ladder, Izzy realized just how lucky she was that her eyes remembered now to navigate this sort of darkness. Only, it wasn’t supposed to be this dark by the elevator. The only light to be found above the elevator was red, coming from each Kamabo Co. label, from behind where the lights should have been, from the pupils of every picture of an eye on the wall. Everything was basked in in a deep, unyielding red.

_Everything_.

When they finally reached the elevator, Kai wasted no time in slapping the button to do down, clenching her jaw as the machine rattled and began to lower itself.

Dot leaned against the rail of the elevator, taking peeks of what was below with squinted eyes.

Izzy stood stiff. Every eye on the wall bored directly into her back, causing the old scarring from failed tests to itch worse than when it finally started healing for good. Each blinking light was too reminiscent of the shining scope of an octosniper. When she turned just the right way she saw the same angles as the ones she saw when fighting Kai, and by the look of Kai’s white knuckles clutching her hero shot, she was thinking the same thing.

When the elevator finally came to a sputtering stop, absolutely nothing happened, because there was nothing there.

And somehow, to Izzy, that was worse than being ambushed. Than seeing some sort of activity.

It wasn’t silent by any means, with soft hum of whirring and buzzing filling the air, just as it did last time Izzy had been here. Last time, when her legs burned so badly from the sanitized ink she was growing worse at dodging as exhaustion began to set in. When her fingertips had gone numb from the shocks she’d received after being flung into the energy core. When she was sure she wasn't going to make it to the elevator, to the Surface, before the energy core burst.

The energy core that was not here anymore, where she’d left it. Where it should still be, to power the elevator.

Kai stepped off of the elevator as fast as a squid could, motioning to Izzy and Dot to follow her. “Follow me,” she whispered, booking it to the edge of the platform and laying on her stomach, sliding herself forward until her arms and head were dangling over the edge.

“What are you doing?!” Izzy hissed in a whisper-shout, running over to Kai, grabbing her ankles and dragging her away from the edge before she fell down into the depths where there were no spawnpoints and she died for good and she became just _another dead body lost to this place_ -

Kai let Izzy drag her entire body drug back onto solid ground, flipping over and sitting up with the hint of a self-satisfied grin when Izzy was finished. “Just confirming that we can still access the ventilation system from here. It connects to pretty much everything, it's faster, it's safer, and it’s away from any potential prying eyes, not that it should matter,” she said, standing up and looking over the edge once more. “It’s also pretty easy to get into. Just don’t look down.”

Dot finally found her way over, tilting her head as she peered over the edge with Kai. “Oh. That’s not too bad,” she said.

“It really isn’t,” Kai agreed, turning to Izzy and motioning for her to come over to the edge. “The vent’s right below the ledge. I used to crawl in and out of these vents all the time when we were here last time.”

Honestly, the vents sounded so much better than staying out in the open in all of the places Izzy remembered so vividly. Where anything could be watching in the dark, behind the eyes. However, before Izzy could even begin to think of the cons, Dot sat down and shuffled herself off the edge backwards, disappearing and being followed by a thud.

**Dead. Dot’s dead.**

Izzy’s body propelled itself to the edge, her knees collapsing as she clutched the edge with trembling fingers and peeked over. She was met with a tiny ledge a few feet down, and Dot staring up at her, her head hanging off of the ledge, right above the abyss beneath her, with the rest of her body safely in the vent.

“Hey look, I'm still super alive,” Dot grinned, slipping all the way into the vent.

Izzy’s fingers went limp and bright pink as the adrenaline began to take effect, forcing a slight transformation to her octo form. Falling backward and away from the edge, Izzy took a shaky breath. “I hate this idea. A lot.”

“I understand, but remember, I lived in these things for a couple months and I never fell,” Kai said, sitting down and scooting over to the edge, next to Izzy. “I just don’t think it would be wise to just waltz through here in the open, even with everything shut down. You’ve only taken the non-vent route once, and I…” Kai paused, staring out into the abyss as she narrowed her eyes. Eye. The right one didn’t match. It never did anymore. “I don’t _remember_ ever taking that route, but I do remember the vents. They’re safe,” she finally continued, pulling her legs back onto solid ground. “If it makes you feel any better, I can help you get down to the vent.”

“I like that idea,” Izzy muttered, leaning away from the ledge.

“Okay, give me your arms.”

Izzy complied, and Kai grabbed her forearms tight. “Now, do that maneuver Dot just did. I’ll hold onto you until you tell me to let go,” she said.

And Izzy trusted her.

In one swift motion, Izzy grabbed the edge and dropped down. She already felt the ledge of the vent underneath her feet, but that didn’t soothe her death grip even a little. She slowly shuffled into the vent, managing to get her lower half into the vent enough that she could get in safely from here.

“Okay, you can let go now.”

Kai obliged and Izzy slid herself into the vent and was met with Dot, sitting on her slosher.

“Hey, thanks for finally joining me down here. I thought I was gonna have to drag myself back up at the rate y’all were going,” she said, hopping up and grabbing her slosher.

A thunk sounded from behind, and Kai strode into the vent as well. “I’m sure you would have lived,” she said, taking the lead once more.

Nobody questioned where Kai was leading them. Nobody said anything. Every weapon was out, just in case. Every odd creak or groan of metal was a pause, but never for too long before they continued deeper. They didn’t stop for anything. They couldn’t stop for anything. Stopping meant it would take longer to reach the Metro, meaning it would take longer for the denizens of the deep to be freed. Leaving them in that damned Metro.

So they continued forward in silence.

Until they turned a corner and heard it.

Screaming.

A cry for help, tearing through the ventilation system, followed by thudding. Sobbing. Cracking. _Whirring blades. Crunching. Squelching. Splattering_.

And suddenly, the noise died.

Just like Kamabo Co.'s latest test subject.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Uh oh**
> 
> A couple quick notes!  
> So the timeline is understandable, the events of the Octo Expansion DLC started 8 months ago as of the beginning of this story, with it taking about 3 months to get through all the tests on the Metro. The Splatoon 2 single player campaign would have taken about a month and a half, and it would've overlapped with the beginning of the Octo Expansion by about 2-3 weeks.  
> Also, for the whole adrenaline octo-form thing, basically for Octo/Inklings the automatic stress response is to go into the cephalopod form since like cephalopod form = going into the ink which regenerates health. It's kinda poorly explained now, but don't worry, we'll get to look into this later. ;)


	4. The Signs Were There

“Marie? Callie? Cap’n? Someone, come in,” Dot hissed, frantically tapping at the speaker of the radio, “I’m not kidding, come in! Someone get on this fucking radio _right now_!”

Finally, shuffling was heard on the other side of Dot’s radio before Callie’s voice echoed off the walls of the vent. “Woah! Hey, Four, clue me in on what’s going on-”

Dot pulled the radio closer to herself as she stared down the direction the screaming had come from. “Send someone to come get us. Right now. I don’t care who it is or how they get here, just get us out of here!”

Kai snatched the radio from Dot and spoke, her voice far too calm. “Something is still active down here. I don’t know how, but they got another blender. We heard it. We heard _someone_. Dot’s right, we need to get out of here immediately. Send anything that can get here quickly, we’ll meet it at the top of the statue.” She sighed and shoved her bangs out of her face. “We aren’t prepared for this. We need to get back to Inkopolis and create a better plan.”

Izzy drew in a sharp breath as all of the tiny details began to collide together. She should’ve known something was off, there were so many signs. Deep down, she _did_ know. She’d been given plenty of warnings, and she decided to pretend that couldn’t have meant anything, all for the sake of the mission.

The mission that should have begun months ago. The mission that would get the denizens of the deep out of this hellhole. The mission that would keep her from ever having to hear those desperate screams again.

“No,” she muttered, “they’ve been blending people alive while we’ve been sitting around on the Surface, none the wiser.” She turned to Kai. “We can’t go back now that we know what’s happening. How many more test subjects will they go through before we’re able to come back?” Izzy asked, steadying herself against the wall.

Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, and her legs grew numb as she tried her very best not to imagine what that poor person just went through. The horror they must have felt, the betrayal, the overwhelming despair as they must have realized how every test, every Thang found, every CQ point collected, was all for naught. The panic, the confusion, **the spinning blades falling slowly to slash and maul her into a pulp inside a glass cage.**

Kai began to pace down the length of the vent as she shook her head to herself. “We can’t just continue like we planned. This is too unexpected. The occasional sanitized Octarian? Sure, we can dispatch those. A hazardous path down? We’ve dealt with that before. But no, they’re still blending up test subjects, meaning that there’s still something in charge of it all. We need time to plan for that. We can’t just run straight into this. This requires strategy, so we aren’t killed,” she said, keeping a death grip on Dot’s radio and her hero shot.

“Every test subject that falls down while we’re busy chit-chatting on the Surface will die a horrible and gruesome death until we come back. Every test subject that’s fallen down here has died since we left.” Izzy’s mouth was so dry. Her hands were so cold. 

“Test subjects don’t have any memories to make sense of all the off-putting stuff down here, so they’ll just mindlessly complete tests until they get their reward: death,” she slammed her brush into the cold, metal floor of the vent. “If we don’t intervene now, the cycle will continue, and so many more people will be killed. All because we were so eager to get out of this place.”

Kai’s shoulders tensed as she glanced back the way they came. “I understand what you’re saying, but please remember that last time we were stuck down here, I nearly killed you. If it weren’t for pure luck, you and the Cap’n would be dead, Inkopolis would have been destroyed, and I’d either be a mindless slave or blended to a pulp. That all stems from _one_ unexpected incident. We can’t rush in blindly on this.”

Izzy’s fingers curled into fists by her side. “You know, I would’ve been one of those test subjects — blended to a pulp — you had just left to go think about your plan a little while longer.”

Kai wouldn’t look at Izzy. Her fingers dug into her palms and her shoulders were squared, but she stared at the floor in front of her. “You also would have been blended if I had decided to take a risk too early and was killed,” she stated. She then held the radio close once more and spoke into it, “Hey. Sorry you had to hear all that. Just get someone out here to pick us up, and quick. We’ll meet them on top of the statue. Please hurry.”

“I… Yeah. All right, Three,” Callie replied, “I can’t contact Pearl and Marina yet, so I’ll have to find another way to get someone out there, but I’ll call you guys when we’ve figured something out. Stay safe until then.”

And the radio fell silent.

Dot didn’t hesitate in taking the radio back and strapping it to her belt loop once more. She held her slosher close and turned around. “Let’s get the hell outta here.”

Kai nodded and turned around. She stepped forward and took a shaky breath before she began the trek back to the elevator. “This way.”

For just a moment, Izzy’s body didn’t move, “I can’t believe that we’re just leaving people to die,” she hissed.

Kai glanced back at Izzy. Her right eye was empty as always, but it was difficult to read what filled the left. Frustration? Pity? Guilt? “If we create a new plan fast enough, we can save every potential future test subject. If we’re killed in here, nobody else will help, and the cycle will just continue,” she said. She stepped toward Izzy and extended a hand to her. She didn’t make eye contact. “We’ll come back here as soon as we can. I promise.”

Soon as they could wasn’t fast enough, but it was the best Izzy was going to get. She took Kai’s hand and let herself be pulled away from the wall until she was following behind Kai and Dot.

Once again, the walk was silent and uncomfortable, but in a new way this time. There were no stops, not even for the loud noises. Every weapon was held close and every breath was listened to, just in case.

* * *

Listening paid off once more as they approached the entrance of the vent. More noise than before could be heard above. Steps and clinks. No breathing.

Sanitized Octarians.

“Shit,” Kai whispered, motioning for everyone to stop. She silently made her way to the opening of the vent and sat down, just inside the entrance. She pulled out her employee model CQ-80 and clicked the power on button.

**DEACTIVATED**

The hologram lit up the vent with a bright red glow. Kai didn’t hesitate in hurling the CQ-80 from the vent and into the abyss, cursing under her breath as she stood up again. She grabbed the edge of the platform above and pulled herself up, just enough to see the platform. She swung herself back into the vent moments later and grabbed her hero shot, weighing it and squinting at it with a frown.

“What? What’s going on?” Dot asked in a hushed voice.

Kai motioned to the entrance of the vent as she slumped against the wall. “It’s best you see for yourself.”

Dot glanced at Izzy in question, and motioned for her to come along. The two walked to the edge of the vent and performed the same actions Kai just had. Izzy tried to ignore how ill it made her feel, being this close to dropping into the depths.

Luckily for Izzy, she forgot all about her fear of falling when she got a glimpse of the platform.

The platform where the elevator had been was filled with sanitized Octosnipers, Octocommanders, and worst of all, plenty of elite Octolings. No less than four Octolings alone for each of the agents stood, each with a different sort of weapon, guarding the elevator. Or at least, where the elevator should have been. It had been sent upward, or perhaps down. Wherever the elevator now was didn’t matter. It was gone. Even if it were here, there was no way they were getting past all of those Octarians.

Izzy and Dot swung themselves back into the safety of the vent before the Octolings would catch a glimpse of them. Dot’s expression had gone blank and Izzy’s stomach had fallen all the way to her feet.

“Shit indeed,” Dot muttered, dropping down next to Kai.

Izzy shuffled further into the vents, away from the drop. “Where were they all when we came down here? You’d think they would have been at the entrance when we arrived.”

“Maybe they were guarding some of the exits closer to the blending? It would make sense to tighten security after we escaped the first time,” Kai muttered, twirling her hero shot in her hand as she rose to her feet. “Anyways, change of plan. We'll head further into the vents and let the others know what’s going on. We’ll obviously need to stay in this place until we either get an opening, or we create one, so let's get to work on option two,” she said, walking right back the way they came from for the second time today.

“Holy shit. We’re really stuck down here,” Dot murmured, close on Kai’s heels. When Kai didn’t respond to Dot, she took in a shaking breath and composed herself before turning to Izzy and chuckling. “Hey, I guess we don’t have to worry about being gone for too long now.”

Izzy tried to laugh along, but her senses were quickly being overtaken by her own pulse as the gravity of the situation crashed down around her. Her ears were filled with her heartbeat, and the only thing her nerves could pick up on was her blood pumping through her blood vessels. Blood was on her tongue and in her nose, or maybe it wasn't. Her vision grew spotty as her lungs worked overdrive.

The only thing she focused on for who knew how long was her own pulse and forward movement, up until Dot turned on the radio again.

“Uh, hey Callie, change of plans,” she said, clutching her slosher to her chest, “don’t send anyone out for us. The elevator’s gone and the platform is too heavily guarded for anyone to try to get in without dying. We’re kinda trapped.”

Callie answered immediately. “Wait, you’re trapped?! Thirty minutes ago, you guys were walking into that statue just fine. How’d the entrance get closed off so quickly, and without any warning?”

Kai shrugged as she peeked around the corner before continuing. “We… We don’t know. The area seemed abandoned when we got down here. We really couldn’t have known.”

No, they could have known. Izzy _should_ have known. All of the signs were there. The missing energy core, the elevator and lights and mechanical noises still going despite its absence, _line K_.

But those were things only Izzy had noticed, things only she could’ve brought to attention, but they were ignored for the sake of the mission for the naive hope that everything would be fine. And now things weren’t fine. Now they were trapped. Now they were fighting not only to free the denizens of the deep, but themselves as well, and it all could have been avoided with a warning. A few extra days of planning.

But how many weeks would a few extra days have turned into? How long before they were too late? How many more test subjects would it take before they could get back down?

“Izzy? How’re you doing back there?” Dot asked.

Snapping back to reality, Izzy picked up the pace and threw on a small smile. “As fine as I can be.”

At least it was kind of the truth?

Kai held the radio close to her face and sighed, (when’d she get the radio?) nodding along as she listened to Callie (how long had they been talking?) and continued forward. “Yeah, I get it. We’ll call in when we've had some time to calm down and rethink things. I’ll talk to you soon,” she muttered, turning off the radio and offering it back to Dot with a sigh. Next, she turned to Dot and Izzy and leaned against the wall. “All right, everyone, take a seat. Once we get this new plan in order, we’re getting shit done.”

Dot wasted no time in sitting cross-legged and grabbing water from her backpack, and Izzy was quick to follow, if only so she would no longer need to focus on standing.

Kai stood up straight before she began. “First things first, we need another employee model CQ-80 ASAP. It’s the only thing I know of that can find us another exit, or let us get back to the elevator safely. Without that thing, it may be near impossible to get out of this place,” she said. She glanced back to Izzy and Dot after she finished her sentence, waiting.

“Well, first we need to know where you found the last one,” Izzy asked, propping her octobrush against the wall of the vent.

Kai nodded, “Good question,” she said, beginning to pace back and forth, using hand motions to punctuate each word. “I got the last one off of an elite Octoling, a few days before I finally tracked you and the Cap’n down. It was by no means the first elite Octoling I had to fight, so it may take a few tries before we get what we want. Despite that, I don’t think we’ll have much trouble in actually taking down the Octolings if we’re smart about it. The problem will be figuring out which ones to target. From there forward, we just need to gain access to the elevator, and we're golden.”

Izzy furrowed her brow, leaning forward and putting her hands together. “I don’t think we can get out of here until we shut this place down for good, employee CQ-80 or not.”

“Why not?” Dot interjected.

“When I got to use Kai’s CQ-80 during the escape, all I could do was look at the map of the whole facility. If I wanted to do anything else with it, such as having the energy core move to the elevator without my assistance, I needed a password.”

“You needed an energy core for the elevator? I didn’t see one there.” Dot said, tilting her head.

Shit.

Kai stopped pacing at that. She was probably trying to keep a neutral expression, but it wasn’t working. Her eyes widened just enough to show her confusion and worry, and her fingers dug too deep into her palms. “That’s… odd. How would the elevator work without the energy core if you needed it during the escape?”

As the pit grew in Izzy’s stomach, she could only pray that she was faring better than Kai in keeping her face in check. “Perhaps they took the core back to the diaphragm. It still gives power to the facility from there, I believe. The only reason I specifically brought it to the elevator was to avoid potential sabotage during the escape.”

“So, theoretically, if we found an alternate exit and destroyed the energy core, we could shut down the function of this facility relatively easily and escape?” Dot asked.

“No!” Izzy yelped, “the energy core is a living creature, like zapfish. We’re not killing it to make our jobs easier. Besides, it would only be a matter of time before whatever’s currently running this place got a new source of electricity.”

“Don’t worry,” Kai said, “we aren’t going to do anything until we get our hands on an employee model CQ-80, so let’s focus on that. There’s nothing to be done about the energy core now.” She rolled her shoulders and looked down the vent, “Now, let’s get to work on the task at hand.”

Izzy quickly took to her feet, while Dot threw her water bottle into her backpack and strapped it back on before finally standing up. 

“Okay, where’re we gonna start?” Dot asked.

“I know a place where there should be an elite Octoling or two, and we’ll have a good vantage point. Follow me,” Kai said, starting back down the vents.

Dot nodded, grabbing the radio and muttering into it to Callie.

Izzy followed from a distance, keeping her brush close. Just in case she had ignored some other sign.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! I'm back!
> 
> Sorry this update took so long. This chapter was a MEGA BITCH to write with school starting back up. There were also some bumps in the road such as the fact that I had to completely rewrite this chapter _three_ times.  
> ALSO, this chapter was originally going to be twice as long until I realized that the whole second half of it should've really just been its own chapter. The good news though is that since I already wrote that entire section, there's a chapter lined up for next Sunday, and HOO BOI it's a good one. ;)  
> While I can't give an exact update schedule at this time, I'm going to try and make it my goal to update at least twice a month.  
> Thanks for reading! <3


End file.
